Pearson youtube for business online video marketing for any business 2011 RETAiL EBook

Whether you are brand new to using YouTube and need somehelp with ideas for your first video or you’ve already got a few videos under yourbelt but want to up your technical production ga

Praise for YouTube for Business, Second Edition

“Mike Miller provides an excellent guidebook for utilizing the tremendous ity of YouTube as a powerful business-building tool This idea-packed book pro-vides step-by-step instructions for growing any business, through the marketingand promotional benefits of video production and sharing.”

flexibil-—Wayne Hurlbert—Blog Business World and host of Blog Business Success Radio

“Social media arguably has made the possibility of brand awareness easier

However, within that simplicity lies a complexity for business…How can we makesense of and how do we make the most of this new marketing approach? That iswhat I loved about this book—it not only explains the why but most importantlythe how…brilliantly written, a must-read book for business people who want toreally understand the power of YouTube.”

—Anna Farmery, Managing Director—The Engaging Brand

“YouTube for Business is chock-full of great ideas and examples for marketing yourbusiness with video Whether you are brand new to using YouTube and need somehelp with ideas for your first video or you’ve already got a few videos under yourbelt but want to up your technical production game, YouTube for Business is defi-nitely worth the read Engaging, easy-to-understand, authoritative.”

—Kate Trgovac Kate Trgovac, Co-founder—LintBucket Media

“YouTube for Business is another well written, informative book On my show, Ialways refer to Michael’s books as wonderful desktop reference guides, filled withpractical advice They’re not filled with engineered techno talk.”

—John Iasiuolo, Host/Executive Producer

“YouTube For Business: Online Video Marketing for Any Business, 2nd Edition isanother example of why Michael Miller's book is considered The definitive bookabout YouTube! This latest edition is a must read book for any business ownerwanting to implement a successful inbound video marketing campaign for theirbusiness, product or service! I highly recommend it!!”

—Rey Ybarra, Host/Producer of "The New Media Radio Hour"

www.newmediaradiohour.com

800 East 96th StreetIndianapolis, Indiana 46240 USA

Copyright © 2011 by Que Publishing

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lia-bility assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information

contained herein.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-4726-6

ISBN-10: 0-7897-4726-X

First Printing: January 2010

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CONTENTS AT A GLANCE

Introduction 1

I Marketing Your Business Online with YouTube 1 How YouTube Can Help You Market Your Business 5

2 Developing Your YouTube Marketing Strategy 21

3 Creating Informative Videos 37

4 Creating Educational Videos 49

5 Creating Entertaining Videos 57

6 Incorporating YouTube Videos in Your Overall Web Marketing Mix 63

II Producing Your Own YouTube Videos 7 Understanding Audio/Video Technology 69

8 Shooting Webcam Videos 79

9 Shooting Semi-Pro Videos 89

10 Shooting Professional Videos 115

11 Editing and Enhancing Your Video 123

12 Tips for Producing More Effective YouTube Videos 141

III Managing Your YouTube Videos 13 Uploading Your Videos to YouTube 153

14 Annotating and Linking Your Videos 161

15 Managing Comments 169

16 Establishing Your YouTube Channel 179

17 Leveraging the YouTube Community 191

18 Incorporating YouTube Videos on Your Own Website 199

IV Promotion and Monetization 19 Tracking Performance 207

20 Marketing Your YouTube Videos 223

21 Optimizing Your Videos for Search 237

22 Advertising Your YouTube Videos 243

23 Using Call-to-Action Overlays on Your Videos 255

24 Generating Revenues from Your YouTube Videos 261

25 Using YouTube for B2B Marketing 267

Index 275

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE WITH YOUTUBE

Introduction 1

How This Book Is Organized 2

Conventions Used in This Book 3

Web Pages 3

Special Elements 3

There’s More Online 4

Get Ready to YouTube 4

1 How YouTube Can Help You Market Your Business 5

A Short History of YouTube 6

YouTube: The Early Days 6

YouTube Launches—and Gets Acquired 7

YouTube Today 7

Who Watches YouTube—and What Do They Watch? 8

Is Video Right for Your Business? 9

Low-Cost Online Marketing 9

Attracting Eyeballs 10

Everybody’s Doing It 11

How Can You Use YouTube to Market Your Business? 11

YouTube for Brand Awareness 11

YouTube for Product Advertising 12

YouTube for Retail Promotion 13

YouTube for Direct Sales 14

YouTube for Product Support 14

YouTube for Internal Training 15

YouTube for Employee Communications 16

YouTube for Recruiting 17

What Kinds of Promotional Videos Should You Produce? 17

Informative Videos 17

Educational Videos 18

Entertaining Videos 19

The Big Picture 19

2 Developing Your YouTube Marketing Strategy 21

What Is the Purpose of Your YouTube Videos? 22

Who Is Your Customer? 22

What Does Your Customer Want or Need? 24

What Are You Promoting? 24

What Is Your Message? 25

How Will You Measure the Results of Your YouTube Videos? 26

What Type of Video Content Is Best for Your Goals? 27

Repurposed Commercials 27

Infomercials 29

Instructional Videos 31

Product Presentations and Demonstrations 31

Real Estate Walk-Throughs 32

Customer Testimonials 33

Company Introductions 33

Expert Presentations 33

Business Video Blogs 33

Executive Speeches 33

Company Seminars and Presentations 34

User or Employee Submissions 34

Humorous Spots 34

The Big Picture 35

3 Creating Informative Videos 37

Why Informative Videos Work 38

Different Types of Informative Videos 39

Information = News 39

Information = Facts 40

Producing an Informative Video 41

Producing a Video Newscast 42

Producing a Video Product Tour 44

The Big Picture 48

4 Creating Educational Videos 49

Why Educational Videos Work 50

What Kinds of How-To Videos Should You Produce? 50

Product Instruction Videos 50

Project Videos 51

Producing a How-To Video 53

The Big Picture 55

5 Creating Entertaining Videos 57

What’s Entertaining? 58

Understanding Viral Videos 60

Producing an Entertaining Video 61

The Big Picture 61

6 Incorporating YouTube Videos in Your Overall Web Marketing Mix 63

Defining YouTube’s Role in Your Marketing Strategy 64

Formulating Your New Marketing Mix 64

Coordinating Your Online Marketing Activities 65

Making YouTube Co-Exist with Television Marketing 66

Repurposing 67

Extending and Expanding 67

Starting Fresh 68

The Big Picture 68

II PRODUCING YOUR YOUTUBE VIDEOS 7 Understanding Audio/Video Technology 69

Understanding Video Resolution 70

Standard Versus High Definition 70

YouTube Resolution 70

Choosing the Right Resolution 72

Understanding Video File Formats 73

Understanding Compression and Codecs 73

Comparing File Formats 73

Choosing the Right Format for Your YouTube Videos 75

Converting Existing Videos to YouTube Format 77

The Big Picture 77

8 Shooting Webcam Videos 79

Understanding Webcam Video 80

When a Webcam Makes Sense 81

Creating a Video Blog 82

Reporting from the Road or Special Events 82

Responding to Immediate Issues 82

Capturing Customer Testimonials 83

Tips for Shooting an Effective Webcam Video 83

Make It Immediate 83

Keep It Simple 83

Watch the Lighting 84

Minimize the Background Noise 84

Uploading Webcam Video to YouTube 85

Uploading Webcam Video Files 85

Uploading Live Webcam Video 85

The Big Picture 88

9 Shooting Semi-Pro Videos 89

Understanding Consumer Video Equipment 90

How Camcorders Work 90

Examining Camcorder Storage 91

Standard or High Definition? 92

Choosing a Camcorder 92

Selecting Essential Accessories 96

Building a Computer for Video Editing 100

IX

C o n t e n t s

When a Semi-Pro Video Makes Sense 101

Video Blogs 101

Informational Videos 102

Product Demonstrations and Overviews 102

On-the-Scene Reports 103

Shooting a Semi-Pro Video 103

Shooting in the Office 103

Shooting Outside the Office 104

Transferring Videos to Your PC for Editing 105

Tips for Shooting an Effective Semi-Pro Video 106

Shoot Digitally 106

Keep the Proper Resolution in Mind 106

Use a Tripod 106

Lighting Matters 107

Use an External Microphone 107

Watch the Background 108

A Little Movement Is Good… 108

…But Too Much Movement Is Bad 108

Shoot from Different Angles 109

Close-Ups Are Good 109

Don’t Center the Subject 109

Shoot to Edit 111

Use a Teleprompter 111

Dress Appropriately 112

The Big Picture 114

10 Shooting Professional Videos 115

Why Create a Professional Video for YouTube? 116

Advantages of Professional Videos 116

Disadvantages of Professional Videos 117

What Makes a Professional Video Professional 118

Shooting in the Studio 118

Shooting in the Field 119

Preparing for a Professional Video Shoot 120

Learn Your Shooting Angles 121

Wait for the Lighting 121

Prepare for Multiple Takes 122

The Big Picture 122

11 Editing and Enhancing Your Videos 123

Choosing a Video-Editing Program 124

Tier One: Free Programs 124

Tier Two: Mid-Level Programs 126

Tier Three: High-End Programs 130

Using a Video-Editing Program 133

Editing Together Different Shots 134

Inserting Transitions Between Scenes 135

Inserting Titles and Credits 136

Creating Other Onscreen Graphics 137

Adding Background Music 137

Getting Creative with Other Special Effects 138

Converting and Saving Video Files 138

The Big Picture 139

12 Tips for Producing More Effective YouTube Videos 141

Tips for Creating Better-Looking Videos 142

Shoot for the Smaller Screen 142

Accentuate the Contrast 143

Slow and Steady Wins the Race 143

Invest in Quality Equipment 143

Shoot Like a Pro 144

Use Two Cameras 144

Look Professional—Or Not 145

Don’t Just Recycle Old Videos—Re-Edit Them, Too 145

Consider Creating a Slideshow 145

Hire a Pro 145

Break the Rules 146

Tips for Improving Your Video Content 146

Be Entertaining 146

Be Informative 146

Go for the Funny 147

XI

C o n t e n t s

Keep It Short 147

Keep It Simple 148

Stay Focused 148

Communicate a Clear Message 148

Avoid the Hard Sell 148

Keep It Fresh 149

Design for Remixing 149

Tips for Generating Sales 149

Include Your Website’s Address in the Video 149

Include Your URL in the Accompanying Text 151

Link from Your Channel Page 151

The Big Picture 152

III MANAGING YOUR YOUTUBE VIDEOS 13 Uploading Your Videos to YouTube 153

Uploading Videos from Your Computer 154

Selecting a File to Upload 154

Entering Information About Your Video 155

Sharing Options 158

Editing Video Information 158

Removing a Video from YouTube 160

The Big Picture 160

14 Annotating and Linking Your Videos 161

Understanding Annotations 162

Uses for Video Annotations 163

Annotating a Video 164

Watching an Annotated Video 166

The Big Picture 167

15 Managing Comments 169

Enabling Comments—and Other User Response Features 170

Comments 171

Comment Voting 172

Video Responses 172

Ratings 172

Embedding 172

Syndication 173

Approving Comments and Video Responses 173

Dealing with Negative Comments 174

Removing Viewer Comments and Responses 175

Blocking Specific Viewers from Leaving Comments 175

Responding to Negative Comments 175

The Big Picture 177

16 Establishing Your YouTube Channel 179

Understanding YouTube Channels 180

Viewing a Channel Page 180

Personalizing Your Channel Page 181

Editing Channel Settings 182

Editing Channel Themes and Colors 182

Editing Channel Modules 184

Choosing Videos and Playlists 185

Establishing a Brand Channel 186

Understanding Brand Channels 186

Benefits of a Brand Channel 188

Applying for a Brand Channel 189

The Big Picture 190

17 Leveraging the YouTube Community 191

Working the YouTube Community 192

Posting Bulletins to Your Channel’s Subscribers 193

Working with Friends and Contacts 194

Adding a Friend to Your List 195

Sending Messages to Your Friends 195

Reading Messages from Other Users 196

The Big Picture 197

XIII

C o n t e n t s

18 Incorporating YouTube Videos on Your Own Website 199

Why You Should Let YouTube Host Your Videos 200

Adding YouTube Video Links to a Web Page 200

Linking to an Individual Video 201

Linking to Your YouTube Channel 202

Embedding YouTube Videos in a Web Page 202

The Big Picture 204

IV PROMOTION AND MONETIZATION 19 Tracking Performance 207

Why Tracking Is Important 208

Fine-Tuning Your Efforts 208

Measuring Effectiveness 208

Planning Future Activities 208

Tracking Views, Ratings, and Comments 209

Measuring Views 209

Judging Likes and Dislikes 210

Reviewing Comments 210

Tracking Basic Metrics 210

Tracking More Advanced Metrics 212

Views 212

Discovery 214

Demographics 215

Community 216

Hot Spots 216

Call-to-Action 217

Tracking Effectiveness 218

Tracking Interactivity 218

Tracking Traffic 218

Tracking Conversions 219

Tracking Direct Sales 220

The Big Picture 220

20 Marketing Your YouTube Videos 223

Start with Great Content… 224

Entertain, Inform, or Educate 224

Target Your Content 225

Write a Compelling Title 225

Pick the Best Thumbnail Image 225

Take Advantage of YouTube’s Community Features 227

Sharing with Subscribers and Friends 227

Guerilla Comments 228

Use Email Marketing 229

Reach Out to the Blogosphere 229

Post to Other Web Forums 230

Work the Social Media 230

Run a Contest 233

Promote Traditionally 233

Upload to Other Video-Sharing Sites 234

Advertise Your Video 235

The Big Picture 235

21 Optimizing Your Videos for Search 237

How YouTube Searches for Videos 238

Choosing the Right Keywords 238

Optimizing Your Tags 239

Optimizing Your Title 240

Optimizing Your Description 241

Optimizing Embeds and Links 241

Optimizing Views 241

Optimizing Comments and Ratings 242

The Big Picture 242

22 Advertising Your YouTube Videos 243

Understanding YouTube Promoted Videos 244

How PPC Advertising Works 244

How YouTube Promoted Videos Work 245

XV

C o n t e n t s

Creating a Promoted Videos Campaign 246

Getting Started 246

Creating an Account and Setting a Budget 247

Writing Your Ad 248

Choosing Keywords 249

Setting CPC 250

Confirming the Promotion 251

Using the Promoted Videos Dashboard 251

Examining Key Metrics 252

Analyzing Individual Video Performance 252

Editing Your Promotion 254

Editing Your Bids 254

Revising Your Budget 254

Pausing, Resuming, and Deleting Ads 254

The Bottom Line 254

23 Using Call-to-Action Overlays on Your Videos 255

Understanding Call-to-Action Overlays 256

Creating a Call-to-Action Overlay 257

Tracking the Performance of Your Call-to-Action Overlays 258

The Big Picture 259

24 Generating Revenues from Your YouTube Videos 261

Create a Video with Value 262

Direct Viewers to Your Website 262

Close the Sale on Your Website 264

The Big Picture 265

25 Using YouTube for B2B Marketing 267

Why Use YouTube for B2B Marketing 268

Different Ways B2B Companies Can Use YouTube 268

Using YouTube for Additional Information 269

Using YouTube to Reinforce Existing Relationships 269

Using YouTube for After-the-Sale Support 269

Different Types of B2B Videos 270

Product Demonstrations and Walk-Throughs 270

How-To Videos 270

Case Studies and Testimonials 270

Conferences and Events 270

Management Messages and Video Blogs 271

Best Practices for B2B Marketing on YouTube 271

Upload All Existing Video Assets 271

Publicize Your Videos 271

Optimize Your Videos for Search 272

Embed Your YouTube Videos on Your Own Website 272

Optimize Your Channel Page 272

Keep Your Content Fresh 273

Include a Call to Action 273

The Bottom Line 273

Index 275

XVII

C o n t e n t s

Michael Miller is a successful and prolific author He is known for his casual,

easy-to-read writing style and his ability to explain a wide variety of complex topics to

an everyday audience

Mr Miller has written more than 100 nonfiction books over the past two decades,with more than a million copies in print worldwide His most popular booksinclude The Ultimate Web Marketing Guide, Facebook for Grown-Ups, Windows 7Your Way, Selling Online 2.0, Using Google AdWords and AdSense, Sams TeachYourself Google Analytics in 10 Minutes, and Sams Teach Yourself YouTube in 10Minutes

You can email Mr Miller directly at youtube4business@molehillgroup.com Hiswebsite is at www.molehillgroup.com, and his YouTube channel is

We Want to Hear from You!

As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commentator Wevalue your opinion and want to know what we’re doing right, what we could dobetter, what areas you’d like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdomyou’re willing to pass our way

As an associate publisher for Que, I welcome your comments You can email orwrite me directly to let me know what you did or didn’t like about this book—aswell as what we can do to make our books better

Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic ofthis book We do have a User Services group, however, where I will forward specifictechnical questions related to the book

When you write, please be sure to include this book’s title and author, as well asyour name, email address, and phone number I will carefully review your com-ments and share them with the author and editors who worked on the book.Email: feedback@quepublishing.com

Mail: Greg Wiegand

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past few years, you’ve no doubt heard of YouTube, the video-sharing site owned by Google YouTube lets anyone post videos online

so that anyone else can watch It’s a fun site and a lar one, constantly ranking in the top five of all sites on the Web with more than 130 million visitors per month With hundreds of millions of videos on the YouTube site,

popu-it would take a viewer half a millennium to watch them all!

When I wrote the first edition of this book, back in 2008, YouTube was a lot smaller than it is today—still big, and still a major site, but less half the size It’s more than dou- bled in visitors and videos in the two years since then, which is somewhat astounding YouTube just keeps get- ting bigger

It’s this size that makes YouTube attractive to businesses—as well as the relativelylow cost of entry The cost of making a YouTube video is next to nothing; you don’tneed much more than a camcorder and a computer If you can reach even a frac-tion of YouTube’s 130 million users, you can get a very big bang for your marketingbuck.

That’s why I wrote this book, to help you learn how to add YouTube to your pany’s online marketing mix Judging from the number of interviews I give andquestions I get asked, it’s obviously a topic of interest for a lot of organizations, largeand small

com-I try to answer as many of these questions as possible in this book You’ll learn howyou can use YouTube to market your company, brand, products, and services online;what types of videos you should create; how to create those videos; and how to pro-mote and make money from your YouTube videos It’s easy enough that any busi-ness can do it

The new edition of YouTube for Business adds to what I first presented two yearsago, to cover YouTube’s new features for marketers You’ll learn how to promoteyour videos on the YouTube site, insert pop-up notes and annotations, add clickableoverlays to your videos, and create a customized brand channel I even address how

to use YouTube for B2B marketing, which is always a hot topic

Know that the information included in this book is both strategic and technical.That means you’ll find general marketing advice alongside specific technicalinstructions; you’ll learn how to use YouTube as a marketing tool as well as how tocreate, post, and manage YouTube-friendly videos If you do it right, YouTube canbecome an important part of your marketing mix and drive a lot of traffic (andsales) to your existing website

How This Book Is Organized

YouTube for Business, Second Edition is part marketing text, part computer book;that’s because you need both marketing and technical skills to take best advantage

of YouTube as a marketing channel To that end, I organized this book into fourmain parts, as follows:

• Part I, “Marketing Your Business Online with YouTube,” helps you

incorporate YouTube as part of your online marketing strategy You’ll

learn how YouTube can help you market your business, as well as

dis-cover the three types of videos that can lead to YouTube success

• Part II, “Producing Your YouTube Videos,” is all about the technical

aspect of creating videos for online videos You’ll learn the necessary

audio and video technology, as well as how to create webcam, semi-pro,

and professional videos You’ll even learn how to edit your videos by

using any desktop personal computer, and discover tips for producingmore effective videos

• Part III, “Managing Your YouTube Videos,” shows you how to upload

your videos to the YouTube site, create a presence in the YouTube munity, customize your YouTube channel page, manage viewer com-

com-ments, and even incorporate your YouTube videos into your own

website

• Part IV, “Promotion and Monetization,” is all about the money You’ll

learn how to track your videos’ performance, get your videos noticed onthe YouTube site, advertise your videos, create clickable overlays, gener-ate revenues from your videos, and use YouTube for B2B marketing

Conventions Used in This Book

I hope that this book is easy enough to figure out on its own, without requiring itsown instruction manual As you read through the pages, however, it helps to knowprecisely how I’ve presented specific types of information

Web Pages

Obviously, there are a lot of web page addresses in the book, like this one:

www.youtube.com When you see a web page address (also known as a URL or form resource locator), you can go to that web page by entering the URL into theaddress box in your web browser I’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy ofthe web addresses presented here, but given the ever-changing nature of the Web,don’t be surprised if you run across an address or two that’s changed I apologize inadvance

uni-Special Elements

As you read this book, you’ll note several special elements, presented in what we inthe publishing business call margin notes There are different types of margin notesfor different types of information, as you see here

Note

This is a note that presents some interesting information, even if it isn’t

wholly relevant to the discussion in the main text.

3

C o n v e n t i o n s U s e d i n T h i s B o o k

This is a tip that might prove useful for whatever it is you’re in the process

of doing.

Caution

This is a warning that something you might accidentally do might have

undesirable results—so take care!

There’s More Online

While you’re online checking out the videos on the YouTube site, you might want tobrowse over to my personal website, located at www.molehillgroup.com Here you’llfind more information on this book and other books I’ve written—including anerrata page for this book, in the inevitable event that an error or two creeps intothis text (Hey, nobody’s perfect!)

In addition, know that I love to hear from readers of my books If you want to tact me, feel free to email me at youtube4business@molehillgroup.com I can’tpromise that I’ll answer every message, but I do promise that I’ll read each one!

con-Get Ready to YouTube

Now that you know how to use this book, it’s time to get to the heart of the matter

To learn more about YouTube, and how to make it an essential part of your onlinemarketing mix, get ready and turn the page!

by nonprofessionals with simple webcams or consumer camcorders—and that’s okay; it’s personal, but stuff that people like to watch But there is an increasing number of more professional clips, many designed to service or pro- mote a particular product or business.

That’s right: Businesses small and large have discovered YouTube In fact, YouTube is the hottest new medium for online marketing; if your business has an online component, you could, and should, be promoting it via YouTube videos.

Figure 1.1 The YouTube site—home base for all your online video marketing.

YouTube: The Early Days

YouTube was the brainchild of three former PayPal employees: Chad Hurley, StevenChen, and Jawed Karim The three founders had left their former company and werelooking for a new business opportunity After exploring a few less interesting ideas,they eventually realized there was a real need for a service that facilitated the process

of uploading, watching, and sharing videos Hence the development of YouTube.The trio registered the domain name YouTube.com on February 15, 2005 and thenstarted developing the technology for the site—in Hurley’s garage Chen, the pro-grammer of the bunch, worked with Adobe’s Flash development language to streamvideo clips inside a web browser Hurley, a user interface expert, adopted the con-cept of tags to let users identify and share the videos they liked Together they came

up with a way to let users paste video clips onto their own web pages, whichexpanded the reach of the site

The development work done, a public beta test version of the site went live in May

2005 After a few months of working the kinks out of the site, the three men cially launched YouTube in December 2005

offi-A Short History of YouTube

If you’ve never visited the YouTube website (shown in Figure 1.1), you’ve missed out

on the hottest thing on the Internet today It’s hard to believe that YouTube is barelyfive years old; what did we do online before there were YouTube videos to watch?

YouTube Launches—and Gets Acquired

YouTube proved immensely popular from virtually the first day in business Site fic that first month was three million visitors, which is pretty good for a startup Thenumber of visitors tripled by the third month (February), tripled again by July (to 30million visitors), and reached 38 million visitors by the end of the site’s first year inbusiness That made YouTube one of the top 10 sites on the Web, period—and one ofthe fastest growing websites in history

traf-That kind of growth didn’t go unnoticed, especially by competing websites Thebiggest of the competing sites, Google, set out to buy the company, and did so inOctober 2006 Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube—an incredible sum for such ayoung company, and one that had yet to generate significant revenues

This put YouTube smack in the middle of the mighty Google empire That said, YouTubecontinues to operate independently of the mother ship; the site looks and acts prettymuch the same today as it did in the pre-Google days The only big difference is volume

YouTube Today

The number of videos and users on the site continues to grow, which is great for nesses looking to take advantage of the opportunity In fact, the growth has beennothing short of stratospheric; traffic to the site has doubled in just the past twoyears (Figure 1.2 shows this growth, graphically.)

busi-7

C h a p t e r 1 H o w Yo u Tu b e C a n H e l p Yo u M a r k e t Yo u r B u s i n e s s

Figure 1.2 YouTube visitors per month—tremendous growth through the years.

How big is YouTube today? According to the market research firm comScore, YouTube

is the number-three site on all the Web, with more than 146 million visitors per month

(as of August 2010) And those visitors are watching a lot of videos—more than twobillion videos a day, representing more than 40% of all videos watched online.

Who Watches YouTube—and What Do They Watch?

Not surprisingly, it appears that YouTube is replacing traditional television viewingfor many users According to Google, an average YouTube viewer spends 164 min-utes online every day; in contrast, viewers spend just 130 minutes per day watchingtraditional television Where would you rather put your marketing message?YouTube’s viewers come from all ages and demographic groups Figure 1.3 detailsthe age distribution of YouTube’s user base; the attractive 18–44 demographic repre-sents 56% of YouTube’s viewers In terms of gender distribution, it’s a fairly even55% male/45% female split

Figure 1.3 The age distribution of YouTube’s viewer base.

These viewers are active viewers Yes, most people still watch YouTube on theircomputers, but that’s changing More and more users watch YouTube on theirmobile phones while they’re on the go; the YouTube app is one of the most popularapplications for the iPhone And an increasing number of people are watchingYouTube in their living rooms, as an increasing number of flat screen TVs and Blu-ray players come with Internet connectivity—and a YouTube widget—built in.What are these people watching? Lots and lots of different videos, that’s what.Sysomos recently analyzed YouTube usage by category, and came up with the

Figure 1.4 What people watch on YouTube, by category.

Is Video Right for Your Business?

I’ll give you the bottom line up front: If done right, YouTube can provide a hugebang for your marketing buck That’s because YouTube delivers a huge audience forvery little investment It’s a marketer’s dream channel

That said, YouTube isn’t right for all businesses And there’s a lot of competition foreyeballs on the YouTube site You have to do a lot of things right to get the payback youdesire

Low-Cost Online Marketing

Let’s look at the cost thing first Large businesses have long embraced video ing, in the form of traditional television advertising But television ads are expen-sive, and typically outside the purview of smaller businesses—except, perhaps, forlittle-seen late night spots on local channels

market-Thanks to YouTube, however, businesses both large and small can afford to marketthemselves via online videos The cost of posting a video to the YouTube site iszero; YouTube doesn’t charge anything to upload, host, or stream videos The onlycost you have is the expense of shooting and editing the video, which can be as low

as you want it to be; not a lot of YouTube videos are high-priced professionalaffairs This makes YouTube marketing affordable for virtually any business

9

C h a p t e r 1 H o w Yo u Tu b e C a n H e l p Yo u M a r k e t Yo u r B u s i n e s s

numbers shown in Figure 1.4 Music is the big category, at 31% of all videos viewed,but after that it breaks down a lot more evenly

Attracting Eyeballs

But is video the right way to promote your business? If you’ve never produced avideo or television ad, you might not be sure But in many cases, a short video canhave tremendous positive effect on your website’s traffic or in orders generated via800-number

Let’s face it: Consumers love to watch videos We’re becoming less a society of ers and more one of watchers; the average consumer would rather watch a videothan read a text-based advertisement Like it or not, you need to be aware of andadapt your marketing mix to this trend

read-And here’s the thing: The more interesting the video, the bigger the audience it willattract You can include a lot of information in a short three-minute video, and youcan present that information in an entertaining and engaging fashion People like to

be entertained, educated, and informed, and online video can do all three things—and, in the process, provide a clear picture of the product or service you’re offering.DoubleClick conducted a survey in 2006 that codified the benefits of online videoadvertising Here’s what it found:

• A high percentage of audiences interact with video ads, via mouseovers,use of the video control buttons, and so forth

• Viewers click the Play button in video ads twice as often as they click

traditional image ads In addition, click-through rates are four to five

times higher than with traditional text or image ads

• Viewers actually watch video ads On average, video ads play two thirds

of the way through

Here’s how Rick Bruner, research director at DoubleClick, assessed the results:Online video ads are quickly becoming the medium of choice to drive both brandawareness and sales The results show that there are clear ROI advantages to placingvideo ads We expect to see strong growth in the number of companies reaping thebenefits of online video advertising in the coming months and years

Done effectively, a YouTube video can add a viral component to your company’sweb marketing strategy You see, when you post a video to YouTube, that video takes

on a life of its own It will be viewed by thousands of YouTube users, posted tonumerous websites and blogs, emailed around the Internet—you name it Just makesure you tailor your message to the YouTube crowd and you can start generatingtraffic from the millions of people who frequent YouTube each day Any userwatching your video is now a potential customer—assuming that you include yourwebsite’s address or other contact information in the video itself

Everybody’s Doing It

It doesn’t matter what type of business you run or how large that business is You cancreate effective videos that will attract YouTube viewers and drive more business toyour website or 800-number All types of businesses are getting into the YouTubescene: local businesses, major national marketers, ad agencies, real estate agencies, con-sultants and motivational speakers, Internet-only retailers, B2C, B2B—you name it

On the big side of things, consider the major brands that are incorporating

YouTube into their overall marketing mix YouTube’s big-name adherents look like awho’s who of brand marketing today: American Express, Coca Cola, Ford, HomeDepot, Old Spice, Progressive Insurance, Sears, Starbucks… the list goes on and on.(And I haven’t even mentioned all the big media companies, from CBS to Disney,that distribute their content on the YouTube site.)

As far as smaller companies go, there are too many to even start mentioning themhere I’ve seen videos from companies that make or sell aquarium accessories, com-puter cables, motorcycle parts, you name it Realtors use YouTube to show videowalk-throughs of their properties; travel agencies use YouTube to show off theirprize destinations Pottery companies use the site to sell their wares; credit cardcompanies use the site to show merchants how to use their terminals

In short, YouTube is used by companies of all sizes to do many things If whatyou’re selling is in any way visual, which almost everything is, YouTube is a perfectmedium for your company’s promotional message

How Can You Use YouTube to Market Your

Business?

Given the huge number of companies that embrace YouTube videos, it should come

as no surprise that there are a lot of different ways to use the site Every companyhas its own unique goals for their YouTube marketing

Some companies use YouTube to generate brand awareness Some use YouTube topromote a particular product or drive sales to their retail store or website Othersincorporate YouTube as part of their product or customer support mix, use videosfor product training, or even use YouTube for recruiting and employee communica-tions Anything you can say in person or to a group of people, you can say in avideo and distribute via YouTube

YouTube for Brand Awareness

Large national companies and major advertisers often use YouTube to enhance theawareness of their brands Instead of focusing on individual products or services,

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these videos push the company’s brand, often in the same fashion used in tional television advertising.

tradi-In fact, online videos are better at imparting brand awareness than are traditional

TV ads A Millward Brown study found that online viewing led to 82% brandawareness and 77% product recall, compared to just 54% brand awareness and 18%product recall for similar television ads Experts believe this is because online view-ers are more engaged than television viewers; the Web is a more interactive mediumthan the passive viewing inherent with television

Brand awareness videos are typically entertaining, using a soft-sell approach toingrain the brand’s name and image in the minds of viewers A good example is theseries of videos produced by Old Spice (www.youtube.com/user/OldSpice), like theone shown in Figure 1.5, capitalizing on the popularity of its 2010 “The Man YourMan Could Smell Like” commercials I love these videos; they’re clever, intelligent,and entertaining as hell They’re also extremely popular, garnering millions of viewsapiece on the YouTube site Very successful brand building, indeed

Figure 1.5 A brand-building video from Old Spice.

YouTube for Product Advertising

If you can use YouTube to push an overall brand, you can use it to push individualproducts, too This requires a more direct approach, although it’s still important tomake the video informative, educational, or entertaining

To promote a product, you want to show the product in your advertising, as Nike(www.youtube.com/user/nikefootball) does with its Bootcamp Drill videos, shown

in Figure 1.6 You can show the product in action or used as part of a tion or tutorial Just make sure you include lots of close-up product shots and linkback to your own website—where more product information is available

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Figure 1.6 Promoting Nike soccer (football) shoes in a Bootcamp Drill video.

YouTube for Retail Promotion

You can also use YouTube to promote a company’s retail stores These videos can begeneral in nature (which gives the videos a long shelf life), or more specifically tar-geted to shorter-term promotions (“check out this weekend’s specials!”)

But a video that is nothing more than a store advertisement probably won’t attract alot of viewers A better approach is to find a way to showcase the store withoutresorting to claims of 20% off and “this weekend only” specials For example, youmight want to record a short store tour or highlight individual departments orservices within the store You can even produce educational videos that demon-strate the products or services your store offers, like the one for Home Depot(www.youtube.com/user/homedepot) shown in Figure 1.7 Make the video inform-ative, and you stand a better chance of grabbing eyeballs

Figure 1.7 Showing off the latest grills in a Home Depot video.

YouTube for Direct Sales

YouTube is a terrific channel for generating direct sales for products and services.All you have to do is show the product in action or provide a clip of the service inquestion, and then ask for the sale by directing the viewer to your own website.One of the best ways to showcase a product is in an instructional video—the onlineequivalent of an old-school infomercial Do you remember Ron Popeil’s late-night

TV ads for slicers and dicers? Create a shorter version of said Ronco ads, but ing on the useful attributes of your product, and you’ll gain YouTube viewership.The key to converting eyeballs to dollars is to generously highlight your company’swebsite address or 800-number within the body of the video Put the contact infor-mation at the front of the video, at the end of the video, and overlaid at the bottom

focus-of the screen during the body focus-of the clip, as Sign Warehouse (www.youtube.com/user/signwarehouse) does in the video shown in Figure 1.8 Make it easy for inter-ested viewers to find more information or place an order (And, to that end, there’snothing wrong with mentioning the product’s price somewhere in the video.)

Figure 1.8 A direct sales video from Sign Warehouse.

YouTube for Product Support

Not all companies use YouTube to generate new business; some companies do so tosupport existing customers Consider some of the most common customer prob-lems and questions, and produce one or more videos addressing those issues If youcan help your customers help themselves, you provide them with a useful serviceand reduce your company’s support costs—all with a free YouTube video

For example, AutoDesk Inventor is a high-end computer program for 3D cal design from AutoDesk (www.youtube.com/user/autodesk) Knowing that theircustomers need a lot of post-sales support, the company put together a series ofYouTube videos (such as the one in Figure 1.9) showing how to install, configure,and use the program It’s extremely useful—and helps to cut down on traditionaltech support costs, as well.

Chapter 18, “Incorporating YouTube Videos on Your Own Website.”

The same goes if you have specific product support or technical support issues Ifyou’re a computer manufacturer, you might create a video showing users how toinstall more memory or connect an external hard drive If you’re a car manufac-turer, you might create a video showing drivers how to change a brake light orcheck their car’s oil level You get the idea—use YouTube to turn a problem area into

a public relations victory

YouTube for Internal Training

Your company can also use YouTube for internal purposes Take, for example, theissue of sales or product training You have a new product to introduce and a salesforce to train How best to reach them? In the old days, you’d fly salespeople from

around the country to a central office and put on a day’s worth of hands-on ing Doing so, however, is both time-consuming and expensive.

train-Instead, consider using YouTube for your product training Create a series of shorttraining videos, like the one in Figure 1.10 for Cree LED Lighting

(www.youtube.com/user/CreeLEDLighting) All you have to do is upload the videos

to YouTube and provide access to all your company’s salespeople (They don’t have

to be public videos.) Sales force personnel can watch the videos at their leisure,without losing valuable sales time trekking back to the office for training You savemoney, your salespeople save time, and you create an archive of product informa-tion that anyone can access at any time

Figure 1.10 A product training video for Cree LED Lighting.

Note

If you create a video for internal use, make it a private video so that it

won’t be viewable by the public Learn how to do this in Chapter 13,

“Uploading Your Videos to YouTube.”

YouTube for Employee Communications

You can use YouTube for all manner of company communications Instead of ing a big company meeting just so that the big boss can give his yearly state of thecompany address, have him record the address and post it on a private channel onYouTube Employees can watch the prez say his thing from the comfort of theirown desks, while they’re on the road, or even at home

hold-In fact, many companies find that YouTube is a fast and effective way to disseminateall kinds of employee information Done right, it gets information out there in

near–real-time, with all the benefit of face-to-face communication, which is a lotbetter than sending impersonal memos via email.

YouTube for Recruiting

Finally, don’t underestimate YouTube as a recruitment tool for new employees Ifyou have a company welcome video, post it on YouTube and make it public Think

of this as a PR exercise to attract new talent to your company, which means doing it

up right—it’s as much a marketing project as it is something from the HR ment

depart-You can link to the video from all your recruiting materials, even from any tional ads you place Don’t limit yourself to a single long puff video: Produce sepa-rate videos for individual departments, as well as to illustrate company values,employee benefits, facilities, and the like

tradi-Tip

Your current employees are your best recruitment tools Include plenty of

employee interviews in your recruitment videos to help personalize your

company and to put a friendly face on the corporation.

What Kinds of Promotional Videos Should You

Produce?

Let’s narrow our focus specifically to promotional videos—those videos produced

to market a company, its brands, or its products and services What types of videoswork best to get your message across?

While there’s a lot of variety, depending on the type of business or product beingmarketed, the key is to offer a video that YouTube users actually want to watch.That means a video that has some sort of entertainment, educational, or informa-tional value In other words, your video needs to entertain, educate, or inform—or

no one will watch it

Informative Videos

One way to do this is to create the YouTube equivalent of an infomercial; that is, avideo that provides useful information to the viewer This information can be any-thing from a guided tour of a new product to a company spokesperson talkingabout larger industry trends It’s a newsy kind of approach, one that leaves theviewer more informed than he was before he started watching

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For example, if you’re a travel agent, you can produce an informative video thatprovides a guided tour of one of your featured destinations You could also take amore talking-head approach, and have one of your agents talk about travel trends

in the coming season Or maybe you put together some PowerPoint slides ing travel costs to different destinations

compar-The key is to provide information that your current or potential customers findtruly useful This helps establish your company as the authority on this topic; whenthe customer wants to pull the trigger, he’ll think of you because of the useful infor-mation you provided

Of course, you do have to remind the customer of who you are and how he cancontact you That means placing a title card at the beginning and end of the videowith your website address or toll-free phone number You can also overlay thisinformation onscreen during the course of the video And don’t forget to includethis contact information in the descriptive text that accompanies your video.The key is to provide enough useful information to be of practical value to viewers,and then make it easy for those viewers to click through to your site for more infor-mation or to purchase what you have for sale It can’t be a straight advertisement; ithas to be real information, presented in as straight a fashion as possible

For example, if you sell appliance parts, you could create a video showing how tochange the water filter in a refrigerator or the light bulb in a dryer If you offer cus-tom woodworking services, create a video showing how to build a bookcase orinstall wood trim If you’re a tire store, create a video showing how to check tirepressure or change a flat You get the picture

The key here is to offer truly useful content Nothing theoretical or ethereal; to-earth practicality is what attracts YouTube viewers Make the task commonenough to draw a large audience, produce an easy-to-follow step-by-step tutorial,and then use the video to sell other goods and services

What’s entertaining? It’s impossible to say Maybe you find some funny way to useyour product or service Maybe you put your president or CEO in a funny situation.Maybe you put together a product or industry overview that focuses on the lighterside of things Or maybe you turn the creative work over to the pros and engage acreative agency to produce your videos.

Whatever you do, it has to be something that viewers find interesting and at least alittle humorous It needs to bear up to repeat viewings, and it should be somethingthat people might like to share with their friends Viral videos are a result of peoplesharing links with each other—and people definitely like to share those videos theyfind most entertaining

Note

Learn more about entertaining videos in Chapter 5, “Creating Entertaining Videos.”

The Big Picture

As you can see, there are lots of ways your company can make use of YouTubevideos—from traditional brand and product marketing to customer support andemployee communications In almost all instances, you don’t have to spend a for-tune doing making videos for YouTube; as you’ll learn, you can produce them in aquick and inexpensive fashion And, of course, you don’t have to give a penny toYouTube; everything you post on the YouTube site is completely free of charge.The key is to not overthink or overanalyze the opportunity Don’t be afraid to getstarted, even if your first videos are modest with little budget behind them

YouTube makes it easy to dip your toes in the water; you can’t reap the benefit untilyou get online!

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